Being right in the middle of the day, there was, naturally, one time above all that the students of Canterlot High looked forward to, and that was their lunch break. Now, while most could safely say that they enjoyed their schooling more than most, it was during this middle time when they truly felt like they could unwind. Relaxing with their friends, the cafeteria was abuzz with activity, mostly in the form of all the various groups of friends chatting to each other about how their days had gone so far. But, amidst this happy scene, there was one person who seemed less than thrilled. Sunset Shimer, sitting alone on a table, was not focusing on her lunch, but rather looking ahead to another table on the other side of the cafeteria. There, surrounded by several of his friends, was Flash Sentry. Sunset watched her ex for some time, looking as if she was debating with herself over something important. After a while though, she let out a sigh, getting out from her chair before taking a step forward.

“Sunset?”

She stopped immediately, spinning in place to see that there, standing and watching her with a somewhat worried look, was Rarity.

“Oh! Rarity! How…how are you?”

Tilting her head, Rarity maintained a look of concern.

“Darling, I hope you don’t mind my saying, but you look like you have something important on your mind.”

This was the absolute last thing Sunset needed right now, but even so, her own face betrayed her as, just for a moment, her eyes darted to the right, in Flash’s direction. Any hope of Rarity not noticing were soon dashed, as the young fashionista turned, looking to see where Sunset had been gazing. As soon as she saw Flash over there, she turned back to Sunset. The wheels worked in her mind until, eventually, a look of realisation crossed her face.

“Sunset…?”

The former unicorn looked away, almost ashamed to look her friend in the eye.

“Look…Rarity…I just…I need to talk to him.”

Folding her arms, Rarity kept her eyebrow up.

“My dear…this wouldn’t have anything to do with Twilight’s little study, would it?”

To that, Sunset shook her head.

“No. But…a few days ago, I was talking with her, and well…I got to think about…about when me and Flash were together. And I’ve been thinking about it ever since and…I just need to talk to him.”

Hearing those words, Rarity frowned a little. However, after a while, her expression softened considerably, leading to her letting out a deep sigh before speaking up again.

“Sunset…I realise how feelings like that can…make us want to do things, grow closer to people. But…please remember. Twilight likes him. And he likes her.”

Sunset nodded, though still looked a little uncomfortable.

“Believe me, I’ve thought long and hard about this. I’m fairly certain I can keep things in check.”

Turning, Sunset began to make her way over to Flash. However, she only managed a single step before stopping, turning back to Rarity with an appreciative smile.

“But…thank you…for being worried about me.”

Rarity still looked worried, but nevertheless offered her friend a small smile. With that matter done, Sunset began to walk in earnest to where Flash was sitting. Fortunately for her, his friends had long since parted, and now, he was eating alone. Her nerves grew and grew as she drew closer, and when she was only a few feet away from his table, she finally spoke.

“Um…hey.”

To that, Flash stopped eating, looking up to see Sunset staring at him. An awkward silence fell between the two youths for a moment, after which Flash, though clearly unsure about this, still managed to get his words out.

“Oh! Er…hi?”

Nodding, Sunset gestured to a nearby chair on the opposite side from where the boy was sitting.

“Can…is it alright if I sit here?”

Flash looked to it for a while, thinking that point over, before eventually giving her a brief nod. With consent granted, Sunset nodded back, pulling the chair out before getting herself comfortable. The two stared at each other during yet another uncomfortable bout of silence, but after a few minutes of this, Flash was the one to break it.

“So…how have you been?”

Putting on a small smile, Sunset replied.

“I’ve been…good.”

“That’s…good,” Flash answered.

A brief chuckle escaped Sunset at that, and she took to shaking her head a moment.

“Same old Flash.”

After giving a small laugh of his own, Flash’s expression became more serious as he looked to her.

“Sunset…is there…is there something you need to talk to me about?”

At that, Sunset’s own expression changed, becoming one of melancholy. In her head, she’d figured it all out, what she would say and how she would say it. But now that she was here, actually talking to the guy, her mind just went blank. But Flash, seeing this difficulty just from looking at her, stayed quiet, giving her all the time she needed to get her thoughts in order. When she finally did start speaking, her words bore a distinct tint of discomfort to them.

“Flash…I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately. I think back to some of the mistakes I’ve made and…and how much I wish I could undo them.”

Looking to her, Flash’s expression softened considerably.

“Sunset…you don’t need to apologise for that anymore. All of us here, we forgave you for that a long time ago.”

But Sunset shook her head at that.

“I’m not talking about that. I’m talking about…us.”

For a moment, Flash seemed confused as to what she was talking about. However, Sunset looked to him, right into his eyes, and in that moment, realisation struck the boy, and his eyes widened. Now knowing what she wanted to talk about, he suddenly found himself at a loss for words himself.

“Ah…that.”

Sunset looked away for a few seconds, before looking back to him, her face bearing a genuinely apologetic look.

“Flash…when we were together…”

After a while, she let out another sigh.

“…let’s be honest, it was a disaster.”

Looking back to her, Flash stayed silent as she carried on.

“I was about as bad a girlfriend as you could get. Not once in all the time we were together did I ever make things easy for you. I was never all that good to be around and…”

Again, she fell silent, looking down at the table, as if unable to look him in the eye.

“…you deserved better than me. So I wanted…to say sorry.”

Flash looked to her, at the despondent expression upon her face, and looked away from her afterwards. He sat there, thinking over everything that had just been said to him, and in all fairness, actually seemed shocked by it all. Clearly, he hadn’t been expecting Sunset to come to him like this. And yet, here she was, and he knew she deserved an answer for all of this. So, taking a deep breath, he began to give her one.

“Sunset…our relationship might not have been the best…but like I said back then…I don’t regret it. Don't think for a moment that you need to apologise for it.”

The girl looked to him, and like Flash before her, stayed quiet and listened.

“We might have had more downs than ups during our time together, but that wasn’t enough to make me regret having it with you. And as for your…your occasional outbursts…I guess I figured at the time that you just had a lot on your mind. So…I just never let it bother me.”

To that, Sunset frowned slightly.

“…How? How can you always be so…so accepting of this? Of me?”

Flash took on a brief look of regret himself before giving her an answer.

“Well…I guess…you’re not the only one who feels they’ve made mistakes with the other.”

Sunset tilted her head, showing clear confusion, which, of course, prompted Flash to start explaining himself.

“It was during the Battle of the Bands. The Rainbooms were in the middle of one of their songs, and you came out of nowhere to tackled Rainbow to the ground.”

Sunset’s expression became one of understanding, for she knew where this was going. Even so, she stayed quiet as Flash continued.

“And I…I just said…I called you the girl everyone loves to hate.”

To that, Sunset had to stifle the urge to wince at being reminded of that moment.

“Yeah…it was pretty bad for everyone.”

Looking to her, Flash expression was one of sheer apology, as was his tone.

“I’ve been meaning to say sorry to you about that for a long time now. So…I’m sorry.”

But, to Flash’s surprise, Sunset shook her head, looking like she wasn’t concerned about that in the slightest.

“Flash…you were under a magic spell. Everyone was. The things you said to me, to Twilight…they weren’t your fault.”

Flash frowned at that.

“Maybe not. But, even so…I’m still sorry.”

Sunset looked to him for a while, seeing the earnestness in his expression, and found herself unable to do anything other than smile at him. She gave a single nod, acknowledging and accepting his apology, which led to him letting out a deep sigh, showing obvious relief at this. Sunset, still watching him, found herself becoming ever more curious as she regarded the boy.

“Flash…how can you always be like this? So calm? So…so happy? Even when you were with me, you always had a smile on your face, always telling a joke, even when you were by the worst girlfriend in the history of girlfriends. Just…why?”

Thinking hard on that, the boy looked to his ex and simply shrugged his shoulders.

“I guess…I just figured that, whatever problems you were going through…you’d find your way out of them, that you’d…get better.”

Sunset looked away from him, looking more than a little uncomfortable.

“In that case…I’m sorry I made you wait for nothing.”

But Flash, in spite of how upset Sunset might have felt, shook his head.

“Don’t be. I mean…you’re better now, aren’t you?”

Sunset looked to him, looking quite taken aback by those words. After a while of watching Flash stare at her, maintaining that same smile as always, Sunset, despite herself, actually found herself starting to laugh a little. After a while, Flash joined in, and together, they both felt a great deal more relaxed than they had been throughout most of this interaction. When the laughter finally died down, Sunset let out a sigh as she looked to the boy.

“Oh, Flash…I wish we could have had more moments like this…back then.”

To that, the boy gave a nod.

“Me too.”

Keeping her hands firmly on the table, Sunset looked away briefly, before looking back to him, looking a little uncertain as to her next words.

“I know things were never great between us, but…do you think that, maybe…we could at least be friends?”

Flash paused, thinking that over for a minute or two, and when he was done, he smiled, reaching forward and placing his hand upon Sunset’s.

“I’d like that. I really would.”

Sunset smiled, enjoying how pleasant this had become between them. But, after a while, she remembered that there was someone in particular nearby who was probably still watching them both, and so she cleared her throat before speaking up again.

“Well…this was good, but…”

But, she was kept from continuing when Flash spoke up himself.

“It’s okay. If you have somewhere you need to be, don’t let me stop you.”

Getting up from her chair, Sunset chuckled a little.

“Honestly, Flash. That goody-two-shoes attitude of yours will get you into trouble one day.”

Nodding, Flash smirked a little as he took hold of a nearby cup of soda and raised it to her.

“Maybe…but that day is not today.”

Laughing again, Sunset waved the boy a goodbye, before making her way away from him. Flash watched her go for a few moments before finding himself having to turn his attention to a few returning friends of his. As for Sunset, she finally looked away from him, walking over to find that Rarity was still where she’d been before, now bearing a slight frown as she looked to her. But Sunset, already seeing what was going on in her mind, raised a hand in an almost defensive posture.

“Rarity, its fine. We just reconciled, that’s all.”

To that, Rarity raised an eyebrow.

“And the hand-holding?”

Sunset shrugged her shoulders.

“It was nothing. Just a moment between friends.”

Rarity watched her for a few moments before letting out a sigh, silently showing that she accepted that, however reluctantly. As Sunset saw her friend walk away, perhaps to join up with the others, she looked over her shoulder to Flash, who was once more in the middle of talking with his friends. And as she looked to him, her own smile faltered.

“We’re…we’re just friends. Just…just friends…”

She kept on saying that, over and over, and after a while, it soon dawned on her that it wasn’t others she was trying to convince of that.